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Candidate Shortage Expected By Over 50% Of Employers

The REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) have reported that more than half of employers (51%) are expecting to have a shortage of permanent candidate to fill their jobs, as per a recent report from JobsOutlook.

Businesses that employ over 250 people have particular concerns that there is a lack of talent in the market, while 63% of those expecting a shortage in this area. 22% of these businesses have plans to employ more permanent workers into their business within the next 4-12 months, and only 1% of businesses expect to decrease their headcount within the next year, so business growth wise it is looking really positive in the UK.

The report from JobsOutlook also shows us that 59% of businesses have already increased the number of permanent staff they employ while a worrying 78% of businesses are currently operating at capacity which means as there is an increase in demand for their services or products they will need to take on additional staff to meet these needs.

There is a sense that the economic conditions in the UK are improving with 34%, nearly a third of all businesses in the UK feeling this way (only 18% of businesses in London felt this way), but 29% of businesses in the UK feel that the UK economic conditions are getting worse.

We have also noticed an interesting drop in the hiring of apprentices; in April 2016 20% of businesses were hiring apprentices, however in February this year the amount of employers planning to employ apprentices has dropped to 19%. This may be a small drop in percentages, but in real numbers this is quite a drop.

Another interesting point to note is that 9% of all businesses plan to increase the amount of temporary agency workers they currently employ with the next 4 months and 17% of all businesses plan to employ more temporary agency workers in the next 4 months to a year.

What else we found interesting was that six in ten businesses are increasing the amount of people they employ, but when it comes to different ways of keeping staff the report found that two thirds of employers are increasing their employees pay. This is an important point to note, because if there is less talent out there and a shortage of permanent candidates, how are you, as an employer, going to retain the talent within your business?